Kaspars over on Konstruktors.com, has put up a very interesting and informative post looking at the user experience of the Blog Herald. I really enjoyed that he put up images of previous versions of the Blog Herald.
Even more interesting, he ripped apart the current design, and even more interesting to me, he came up with a suggestion on how it can improve, at least in the header area.
I have always enjoyed the designs of the Blog Herald, but with the interesting themes being created now for WordPress, the bar seems to be raised, and continues to be so. Should the Blog Herald continue to try to redesign in hopes of pushing the envelope, or do people in general hate change, and enjoy our current look.
Here is what Kaspars has to say:
Web design and design in general should never be judged from the aesthetic viewpoint or by how much one likes/dislikes a particular color scheme, typeface or the layout of different content elements. The purpose of design is to make the content organized and accessible to the widest target audience possible. Design should be the information highway without traffic jams and clearly marked road labels which don’t require any Design Positioning System (DPS) in order to navigate.
By content I don’t mean only text and photos, and by road labels I don’t mean the physical labels or navigation tooltips on a website. The message which the website wants to deliver to its users is the content — everything from writing tips, or well explained PHP tutorials for beginning web developers, to “make money online” suggestions for young mothers. The content defines your audience and only by understanding that audience one can shape or design the content in a way that works the best. The purpose of the website should define its design and structure.
I really enjoyed the article, and I think it shows information that many theme developers can use. Blogs and really websites in general are all about user experience. How do you make your user experience better than other blogs in your niche?
What do you think of our user experience? What would you change?
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